AT&T launches stealthy $10 DSL

As part of its deal with the FCC as it negotiated to merge with Bell South, AT&T agreed to sell $10 DSL in its 22-state area. That service is finally available, but good luck finding it on the telecom giant’s Web site.

The $10 offer is available to customers in the 22-state AT&T service region, which includes former BellSouth areas, who have never had AT&T or BellSouth broadband, spokesman Michael Coe confirmed Monday. Local phone service and a one-year contract are required. The modem is free.

The plan was not mentioned in a Friday news release about AT&T’s DSL plans, and is slightly hidden on the AT&T Web site. A page describing DSL options doesn’t mention it, but clicking a link for “Term contract plans” reveals it. It’s also presented to customers who go into the application process, Coe said.

The service provides download speeds of up to 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, matching the speeds of the cheapest advertised AT&T plan, which costs $19.95 per month in the nine-state former BellSouth area and $14.99 in the 13 states covered by AT&T before the acquisition.

AT&T’s site requires that you enter part of your phone number — the area code and prefix — before you can see its promotional DSL deals. Once you get to that page, you can click on a link under a “Get DSL for a Dialup Price” headline, down in the lower right-hand corner. You’re prompted to enter your full phone number, and you can then see the $10 offer.

This is an excellent deal for those still clinging to bargain-basement dialup services, provided that DSL is available to those laggards. But it’s a shame that AT&T makes potential customers dig for it.

Coming next as a concession for the merger: Naked DSL, in which you can get DSL without having landline phone service. The phone company has been fighting that for a long time, so expect that offering to be even harder to find!

12 Responses

WOW! That’s a great deal. I will have to read if never means never or in the past year or so.

I had the service for a few months in 2005 so I may not qualify for the $10 dollar deal. That would be great if I did. Even though I’m not a big BellSouth fan, for $10 DSL, I’d try the merged companies.

They way they hide it, it seems like they do not want anyone to know baout this deal.

It’s even stealthier if you look for it in a Florida location, where you can’t find any DSL plan under $19.95. Good old AT&T, agreeing to sell it at the price – but then preventing customers from finding out about it.

From their writeup, AT&T’s plan does seem to contain some more consumer “gotcha’s:”

“…tier is available to new customers only, those who have not subscribed to AT&T or BellSouth DSL during the past 12 months, and the service requires a one-year contract.

Customers must also order phone service to get the budget-priced DSL service; those looking for cheap, naked DSL should look elsewhere.”

So, if you already have a different “wired” phone provider, you will need to switch to an AT&T phone plan (and whatever cost that brings) and then you can qualify for the $10/mo rate for 1 year. Seems really marketed only to AT&T customers who might be on the fence about moving from dial-up to DSL.

Oh, and I suspect there will be some additional installation fees, maybe a rebate-able digital modem charge, etc….and what happens once the year is up? What plan pricing will be available at that point for the “hooked” consumer and their precious email address they now want to retain?

That $10 price for better than dial-up speeds, but less than “regular” DSL speed and not quite cable-broadband speed is looking considerably more expensive…if you happen to be in an AT&T phone-zone to begin with!

Could this be a plot to market a cut-rate booty plan to the piratz of the Web waves and trick them into signing up and then blast-em broadsides as their packets get sniffed? (No doubt pirate packets do smell kinda fishy…)

And for ballast, fund the whole rock-bottom price-cut by underwriting it with email advertising? Hmmm.

A loaded “bait-boat” like the bait cars some PD’s leave around looking for scofflaws?

I clearly have no absolutely no proof of these thinly crafted motives….just putting 1 and 1 together and getting 5 here and hoping that the Daily Show picks up my take on the “real” story (or at least The Onion).

Nah…I think I will stick with my TimeWarner (strike that) Comcast cable broadband service for now….

Sheesh.

Now I need to go and find out if Cingular (DOH! Did it again…strike that) AT&T will be able to assist me with refunding/transferring the (considerable) GoPhone! account balance on my daughter’s washed out cell phone to a new phone or if my hopes are, well, all washed up….

The rate is required for 2 1/2 years, so customers signing up for the $10 deal should have it for at least 2 years. There is no installation charge unless you opt to have an at&t tech come out and do the install, which will run you $150-200. The modem is $50 but there is a $50 rebate and also a mention of a $50 instant modem savings credit in the terms page.

Unable to find anything about the $10 dollar a month service on AT&T’s web site and only passing mention of it on the BellSouth web page I decided to give AT&T a call. They are my local phone provider here in Pennsylvania and I also have their cell phone service (my wife got me stuck in some 2 year plan.) After being passed around and given multiple numbers to call I was finally given 1-800-967-5363. This will allow you to talk directly to the DSL department with any questions regarding this matter. I should note that all representatives I spoke with were obviously outsourced, probably Indian, so it made communications difficult and frustrating.

My first go resulted in the representative saying that the $10 offer was not available to me so I asked to speak with the manager. The manager said the “special offer” was only available in 22 states. I asked him to list them and he gave me the following: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. I asked him why it is only available in those states. He didn’t know. I then told him that I had family in California who would be interested in this DSL price, how do I directly access the AT&T web page that details this “special offer.” He directed me to att.net which uncovered nothing, then to att.com/localhelp which also uncovered nothing, finally he told me to go to newatt.com which redirects you to attfashion.net a site selling shoes. At this point he was getting frustrated and said he would connect me to one of his “DSL specialists” to resolve the matter.

Can you guess what happened? He redirected me back to the main menu of 1-800-967-5363. *sigh* I waited on hold again for another outsourced Indian representative. This lady was armed with a lot of information. She was obviously reading a printed statement and basically said that the $10 offer is only available where BellSouth owns the land lines. Because Verizon owns the land lines in Pennsylvania the service is not available. I asked when the offer would be available to Pennsylvania and she said she did not have that information.

She then tried to sell on the 19.99 DSL offer. No thanks. Much faster than the $10 offer! No thanks. How about AT&T dial up? No thanks. Its very fast with an accelerator! No thanks. Would you like AT&T wireless? I have it already, it sucks and is overpriced. How about adding another line? *CLICK*

e) Window will open. You’ll be asked to answer two important qualification questions (about having had service within the past year), and to enter all your information (so it scares you into wondering what you’re signing up for). At about this point, the “Chat” session with “Jessica” started. I asked her if I was on the correct page for DSL Lite, and she said yes, but her answers were “rehearsed”, and she didn’t answer every direct question. Fill in everything, and click to Continue.

f) A new window will open, with ALL your DSL options. This time, you’ll actually see “Fast Access DSL Lite with term agreement” ($10) and “Fast Access DSL Lite” ($24.95). I didn’t even see the $19.95.

g) NOW, you can choose the one that you want.

h) Eventually, you’ll get to the modem part, andn find out that the modem is not free if you get the $10 DSL. That’s ok… you can opt to pay them $75 for the modem or buy your own.

i) “Jessica” was there for every step of the registration process (lots of windows, with lots of extras, including firewall stuff).

AT&T crooks! Unbelievable! AT&T will instantaniously upgrade your service, but if you want to take advantage of the FCC ($10) offer you have to cancel your existing service and then wait 60 days for the new $10 service to take effect! How do these crooks get away with it?